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(NoModeL) J. MAGDONOUGH.

Postage-Stamp. No. 228,365. Patented June 1, 1880.

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N-FEIERS. PHQTQ-LITMOGRAPHER, WASHlNG'TON. D. C,

UNTTED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

JAMES MAGDONOUGH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A SSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND I THE AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

POSTAGE-STAM P.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 228,365, dated June 1, 1880.

Application filed April 6, 1880.

of New York city, in the State of New York,

have invented certain newand useful Improvements relating to Postage-Stamps and analogous articles, of which the following is a specification.

I have devised improved means of rendering postage-stamps partly fugitive. It has been before proposed to do so by applying to the paper, before printing it with the ordinary ink, a partial coating of gum-arabic or other material soluble in water, applying such in crosslines or otherwise, so as to cover a part only of the surface which is to compose the stamp. Any completely soluble or partially soluble coating thus applied is liable to be affected by the wetting of the paper which is required previous to the printing in order to insure the best work. The soluble or partially soluble lines are liable to spread and become almost or quite equally diffused over and through the entire paper. I have improved upon this by substituting for the soluble material a coating of shellac, or an analogous hard coating which is unaffected by water, but which will hold up the ink lying thereon and cause it to be easily removed when subjected to a severe rubbing in the act of washing off the canceling-ink.

The following is a description of what I consider the best means of carrying out the invention.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure 1 is a section of paper prepared to render a portion of the printing-ink to be applied fugitive. Fig. 2 is a corresponding section of a finished stamp ready for sale. Fig. 3 is a section showing a portion of a stamp after a trial to wash off the canceling-ink. These three figures are on an enlarged scale. Fig. 4: shows the face of a stamp after the canceling-ink has been washed off.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures.

I take paper of any ordinary or suitable character adapted to form the desired stamp. Previous to the printing I rule it in cross-lines by hand or with a suitable ruling-machine, employing instead of ink a solution of shellac (No model.)

' in alcohol, or in ammonia water, or in other suitable solvent. I can use other material than shellac or other solvent so long as it results, like the use of shellac, in the leaving of a hard coating upon the paper over which the printing of the final impression with ordinary printers ink will lie and produce the same general appearance as on the other parts of the paper. The paper thus treated on a portion of the surface will receive the ink with practical uniformity wherever the lines of the printed device may strike, and stamps thus made will present the ordinary appearance to the eye, but the ink will lie difierently conditioned on the different parts. On the squares between the rulings it will penetrate the paper and take a permanent bold; but

on the surface previously coated with shellac that is to say, on the lines which cross each 7 other, or on whatever other lines or surfaces may be thus coated by the previous treatment -it will lie higher and with little or no penetration either into the paper or into the shellac which lies thereon.

When such stamp is subjected to friction in the attempt to wash off the canceling-ink, (not represented,) the ink lying on the shellac (not only the canceling-ink, but also the permanent ink there lying) will, by reason of its small penetration and of its being held up the thickness of the shellac coating above the adjacent parts of the paper, be washed off, or rubbed off, or removed before the permanent ink lying in the spaces between will be affected. It follows that when the stamp has been used on a letter and has been canceled, the canceling-ink cannot be subsequently washed away or removed by any process which requires rubbing without removing the permanent ink over the shellac before the rubbing has been sufficiently con- 0 tinned to remove the canceling-ink in the slightly-sunk or less firmly-supported intermediate spaces.

Referring to the drawings, Ais the body of the paper, B the coating of shellac, and O c 5 the ink forming the proper printed device of the postage-stamp. 0 represents the part which lies on and becomes permanently attached to the untreated portion of the paper, and 0 represents the part of the ink which lies 10o on the partial coating B, and is thereby held up and prevented from striking into the paper.

I have not deemed it necessary to represent the canceliiigink, which, it will be understood, is liable to be applied more or less thoroughly, and in some instances will be very variable in its character. Such canceling-ink lies on the outer surface of the face-printin g C c. Any attempt to fraudulently wash off such canceling-ink cannot fail to detach the original ink, c, of the stamp proper, leaving the portion 0 of the stampproper unaffected.

The result of the fraudulent washing of my stamp is to leave a large portion of the original stamp unaffected, so that stamps which shall in transportation be exposed to rain or lie in the bottom of a river will still retain their identity, and can be returned to the Government and replaced by new ones. They can be recognized and counted with the same facility as ordinary stamps, because a large portion of their surface is absolutely unchangeable; but when any fraudulent washing is attempted to restore a stamp which has been canceled and make it lit for subsequent use the washing away of the ink 0 over the portion B of the surface will make plainly apparent the fact that the stamp has been tampered with.

It will be evident that instead of ruling in cross-lines the invention may be worked by ruling with a single series of lines, or with dots or printing with curved lines, circles, or with various more or less elaborate devices.

The invention may be used with advantage for postage-stamps, revenue-stamps, and all kinds of stamps on manufactured articles, as tobacco, whisky, and the like. It may be used with advantage in any case where canceling or other marks are liable to be washed off from any paper representing value.

I do not in this patent claim, broadly, the making a part of the ink fugitive, or more easily removable than the remainder; neither do I in this patent claim the use of a substance on a part of the paper which will act chemically on the ink lying above it, nor one which will form a layer under a part of the ink, which is soluble in water.

I do not in this application claim, broadly, the making of a stamp partly permanent and partly fugitive; but

I claim as my invention 1. The within-described method of preparing paper for printing postage-stamps and analogous printed articles representing value, by coating portions of its surface with a hard under layer insoluble in water, so as to mechanically hold up and thereby to make the ink on that portion of the surface more easily removed than the rest, as herein specified.

2. Postage-stamps or analogous printed articles having theink with which the impression is made thereon lying directly on the paper on certain portions and on a hard under layer insoluble in water on the remaining portion, substantially as herein described.

J. MACDONOUGH.

Witnesses J. E. OURRIER, L. B. GREGORY. 

